


Four Times Steve Didn't Meet Peter

by merthurxmalec



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: I want Peter and Steve to give it to him, Infinity War spoilers, Iron dad and Spider son, Other, Protective Tony Stark, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers/James "Bucky" Barnes if you squint, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark if you squint, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, also he needs a hug, civil war happened folks but they sat down and hashed it out like adults
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 07:11:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15165362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merthurxmalec/pseuds/merthurxmalec
Summary: (+ the one time he did)Steve Rogers was trying to make amends, and he'd be damned if he didn't succeed, however long it takes.All he wanted to know was when Tony became a dad.





	Four Times Steve Didn't Meet Peter

**Author's Note:**

> [INFINITY WAR SPOILERS] 
> 
> This isn't beta'd and proofread very briefly because I can't proof-read for shit and I wanted to get something out for our dear old Capsicle's birthday. 
> 
> Also, I'm British and I tried by best to American-ise it but I honestly have no idea how to so excuse the Britishness?

 

**_One_ **

Steve made his way into the kitchen, his legs instinctively moving around the Avengers Tower like he had done so many times in the past. It felt good, he mused, to be home. Whilst in the Avengers Tower, surrounded by his team mates who had long since filled the void of family left in him after 70 years in ice, he felt closer to home than he had done in a long time. It was the middle of the night, but Steve could not sleep. Sleep and him had not been good friends for a long time, but particularly after Berlin and everything that followed, Steve was plagued by nightmares and guilt. Guilt of letting Bucky fall all those years ago, guilt for what he had nearly done to Tony- Tony, who had proven to be a better friend than Steve had even dreamt of. In the bitter silence of the night, with only himself and his thoughts for company, Steve found sleep all too painful.

 

Instead, he traced his way around the tower, around the home he had missed so much in his time away. Steve knew in his heart that he was right, but he always knew that his way was wrong, and as he walked through the tower and into the kitchen, he let his mind drift to a simpler, more fun time in which his team would sit around this very room, laughing and being the family he had always hoped he had.

 

Now, he was greeted with silence.

 

It was F.R.I.D.A.Y’s voice, crisp through the empty room, that awoke Steve from his thoughts.

 

“Captain Rogers, Mr Parker is in distress. As per the Baby Monitor Protocol, I am required to inform someone when Mr Parker is in a state of distress. Mr Stark is asleep, and you are the only Avenger awake and close by to get to him immediately.”

 

Steve furrowed his brows in confusion, he had never met a Mr Parker, and did not understand why he was even in the tower to begin with.

 

“How do I get to him, F.R.I.D.A.Y?” Steve asked, because if Tony had kept this Mr Parker under such scrutiny, he must be someone important.

 

“Mr Parker is currently asleep in his room, next to Mr Stark’s.” F.R.I.D.A.Y informed, her voice just bordering on a hint of panic that Steve had scarcely ever heard from her. Steve nodded, making his way to Tony’s private suite, all the more confused. No one had access to Tony’s private suite, save Pepper and Rhodey, and it made Steve all the more curious about this Mr Parker.

 

It wasn’t hard for Steve to locate Mr Parker’s room, for the pained whimpers coming from the door next to Tony’s were loud and frantic, making Steve’s heart clench with protection. He had heard these sounds many times- they were not uncommon in war. He had heard it from his fellow soldiers, from Bucky on bad nights in which his time as the Winter Soldier resurface, leaving him vulnerable. He knew he was guilty of these same sounds too, and it broke his heart to hear someone else go through the same.

 

He paused outside the door, his hand frozen mid-air as he deliberated whether he should knock or not. He sighed, his hand spread over the wooden frame of the door when Tony’s voice came from behind him.

 

“What are you doing here?” Tony demanded, his mistrust evident in his voice. It didn’t surprise Steve, he knew that he had done Tony wrong and one apology was not enough to fix it, but Steve would be damned if he didn’t try.

 

“F.R.I.D.A.Y informed me that someone called Mr Parker is having a nightmare, since you were asleep. I was just making my way to check on him. Who is he, by the way?”

 

Tony’s eyes hardened with a look of furious protectiveness; a look that Steve had not seen from Tony, ever. It left Steve all the more confused.

 

“No one you need to be concerned about, Capsicle” Tony said, adopting his Stark voice that only ever meant he was defecting. “Run along and do whatever it is you were doing.”

 

He didn’t even wait for Steve to reply, instead pushing through the door and shutting it quietly behind him. As Steve turned to walk away, he heard soft murmurs of Tony’s voice, adopting a gentle quality unlike anything he had ever heard from Tony, it almost sounded -

 

“Sssh, you’re okay, kid. I’ve got you.”

 

It almost sounded paternal.

 

 

**_Two_ **

“Where do you think you’re going?” Clint asked Tony as he walked towards the private elevator, impeccably dressed in a black suit jacket worn over one of his vintage band t-shirts, his signature sunglasses settled on his nose. He walked in his usual, suave Tony-freaking-Stark style; even at the blunt interruption from Clint he just merely rolled his eyes, thrusting his hands into his pocket as his eyes took an almost defensive look.

 

“What is it to you, Katniss?” Tony asked in his usual, bored voice.

 

“What it is to me is that Steve is forcing us all to attend a ‘team meeting’” Clint made air quotes around ‘team meeting, “for a ‘team bonding experience’ so that we can ‘get our rapport as a team back again.’”

 

Tony merely sighed, his hand pushing the elevator door. “You go have fun playing kindergarten games,” Tony said as he walked into the elevator. “I have much more important places to be. I have a very important meeting I need to get to.”

 

“F.R.I.D.A.Y said your schedule is free today,” Steve’s voice said as he appeared out of the kitchen wearing the hideous kitchen apron (which said “for God’s sake watch your language!”) Tony had gotten him for his (95th) birthday before… everything. Tony was a little surprised Steve still had that, and the tips of Steve’s ears blushed red as he tried to avoid Tony’s burning gaze.

 

“yeah, well something came up,” Tony said dismissively as he forced his gaze away from Steve. “Don’t wait up, Capsicle. To the exit, F.R.I” Tony said, all in one breath, and the elevator door shut before Steve could get a word in.

 

Steve sighed, avoiding Natasha and Bruce’s sympathetic looks.

 

“Well,” Steve said, “I guess he’ll be missing out on his favourite ice cream place. We’ll buy him some on our way back.”

 

No one commented on how unfeasible that is, just nodded, letting Steve hold on to a tiny resemblance of togetherness.

 

When the Avengers walked into Davey’s Ice Cream Parlour in Brooklyn an hour later, they weren’t surprised by the stares they got as they settled down. It wasn’t anything they weren’t accustomed to, per say- they had been dealing with it for years, after all. The difference was that Tony wasn’t there, who knew how to deal with the attention more than any of them did combined. If anyone felt the difference as they walked in and got settled in their usual corner booth, a large Tony-size space left in between Steve and Bruce, no one said anything.

 

They ordered their ice cream, eating it in silence as they mused over their life and all that led to the moment in which they were seated. It wasn’t the kind of team bonding Steve had in mind, but it was strangely enlightening, a stark contrast from the way things used to be. If anything, it strengthened his resolve to pick up the broken pieces and mend them. He was no mechanic- that was Tony’s area of expertise- but Steven Grant Rogers firmly believed that nothing is broken beyond repair- his very presence on that table was testament enough.

 

It was Natasha who finally broke the silence, her eyes twinkling as she looked up with a childlike quality seldom seen from her.

 

“Do you remember,” she began, and every superhero on the table looked up with attentiveness.

 

“Do you remember that time Tony told us to meet him here after that mission with the green aliens, and then kept us waiting for hour?” she asked, and everyone began laughing as the story unfolded in their own minds.

 

“When he did walk in,” Steve continued, his eyes adopting the faraway look he often had, “he came in wearing a hay skirt with wild flowers around his neck. And all anyone could say was-“

 

“Look, there’s Tony.” Clint said, and Steve laughed.

 

“Yeah, there’s Tony.”

 

“No,” Clint said, shaking his head. “Tony is over there in that corner booth.”

 

The heads of five superheroes simultaneously turned to the direction Clint was gesturing at, their mouth hanging open as they took in the sight of the genius, billionaire, philanthropist, former playboy (and part-time superhero), his head bent over his StarkPad as he sipped from a milkshake in front of him.

 

“Didn’t he have a meeting?” Scott asked, confused.

 

“In Davey’s, apparently,” Steve said as the five superheroes got up and made their way to their team mate.

 

“Fancy seeing you here,” Natasha said, causing Tony to look up in confusion to meet the eyes of five, very pissed off superheroes.

 

“So, Very Important Meeting, was it Tony?” Clint said, his voice mocking and cold.

 

Steve said nothing, just looked at Tony with a hurt look that the genius did not take long to decipher.

 

“I actually am in a meeting, folks,” he said. “Believe it or not, I do not hang out at an ice cream parlour all by myself. I have friends.”

 

Bruce laughed, “all your friends are in this room, Tones,” he said, and Tony faked indignation. “One is in the toilet.”

 

“Tony-“ Steve began, but was cut off by a scream coming from the streets, followed by a sudden burst of green light.

 

“Well, I guess saving the day calls,” Tony said, as he fished his phone out of his pocket.

 

“Happy, come over to Davey’s, pronto and take the kid home. Don’t let him go out and do anything, I want him straight to the tower and kept there until I get back. I don’t care how much he moans. F.R.I.D.A.Y knows the protocol.”

 

With his other hand, he took out his Stark watch, immediately being engulfed by his Iron Man suit.

 

“Well, band, you coming?” already walking out, the rest of the team following closely behind.

 

As Steve began to follow, he noticed a card with an illustration of Iron Man sitting on the edge of the table, about to fall down. Steve picked it up, as he put it back on the table he could not help but sneak a peek at the message inside.

 

_Dear Mr Stark,_

_You will always be my hero, with or without the suit. Iron Man is cool, but I think Tony Stark is much more awesome._

_Happy Father’s Day, Mr Stark._

_Yours,_

_Underoos_

Father’s Day?

 

Tony Stark has a child?

 

 

**_Three_ **

****

It was a quiet day on the Fourth of July this year.

 

Steve liked it.

 

After the serum, and after Steve taken up the mantle of Captain America, Bucky used to love to comment upon the irony that Steve’s birthday just happened to be on the day of American independence.

 

_“It is almost like you were born for this,”_ he used to say, and Steve loved the idea. He loved knowing that the scrawny kid from Brooklyn, who wasn’t expected to make it past his 20thbirthday, was destined to become a symbol of hope for all of America.

 

But sitting in the shadows of Wakanda as he turned one hundred, surrounded by the ash of thousands that had not yet been cleaned away- mainly because no one had the heart to do so- he could only think one thing: _fuck destiny._

(He could almost hear Tony’s mocking voice shout “language!” like he had done so in the past, but he knew that he would never hear it again. He knew a year ago when he left Tony in the snow in Siberia, knew when Tony descended that broken spaceship days after the battle with Thanos with a haunted look in his eyes. Tony Stark wasn’t the same anymore, and neither was Steve Rogers.)

 

He knew the team wanted to do something for his birthday, like they did every year, but Steve was firm in his decision of pretending the day doesn’t even exist. The world is in mourning, _he_ is in mourning, and his birthday and the happiness that comes with it seemed to have turned to dust with half of the universe.

 

So when Steve felt a weight sitting down next to him, he didn’t react.

 

“You know,” Tony’s voice addressed him, for the first time since Tony came back all those weeks ago, “he always celebrated your birthday.”

 

Steve looked at him, a silent question in his eyes, although he felt like he already knew the answer.

 

“The kid,” Tony clarified, “he always celebrated your birthday. Used to drive me insane, how much of a fan he was of you. His aunt told me that when he was little, he used to dress up in his Captain America costume with a shield he made himself every year on the Fourth of July. Apparently he used to insist that your birthday takes precedent over the nation’s.”

 

Tony was wearing a soft smile, paternal and fatherly although the sadness was clear in his expression, his eyes misty but showing the emotions he had so long kept hidden within himself.

 

“If he were here now,” Tony continued, his voice breaking a little, “he would give you a piece of his mind for not celebrating his favourite day.”

 

“Tell me more about him,” Steve said, because he wanted Tony to keep talking, wanted him to know that he could.

 

“He was an idiot,” Tony said, smiling, “and stupid and reckless and had zero sense of self preservation, with a heart of gold. He found happiness rescuing kittens from trees and helping old ladies cross the road. He understood responsibility, better than you and I or anyone else does. He reminded me of you.” Tony admitted quietly.

 

“What was his name?” Steve asked, as he realised that he didn’t know. This kid, who became Tony’s lifeline when he’d smashed it himself, and he didn’t even know who he was.

 

“Peter.” Tony said, “his name was Peter.”

 

“Your son sounds great, Tony,” Steve said softly, his blue eyes trying to catch Tony’s brown ones.

 

“He’s not my son-“ Tony protested.

 

“Family doesn’t always mean blood, Tony,” Steve said. “You should know that better than anyone.”

 

“I know,” he said.

 

“I’m sorry, Tony,” Steve said, and he knew Tony knew what he was apologising for.

 

“Yeah,” Tony said, “me too.”

 

“You think we can get cake in Wakanda? What was his favourite?”

 

“Chocolate,” Tony smiled, “I’ve already ordered it.”

 

As Tony got up to leave, Steve placed his hand on Tony’s left arm, soft and tentative but grounding, in the way he knew Tony liked.

 

“We’ll get him back, Tony. I promise.”

 

 

**_Four_ **

****

Steve crumpled to the ground, his shield landing on his side with him.

 

_They really did it._

Steve hoped that they would, he knew that he would die trying, was ready to die trying, but when has death ever come for Steve Rogers?

 

But as people began to appear around him, he was glad that death didn’t knock on his door this time around.

 

He still had much to do.

 

“Steve?” a voice came from behind him and Steve felt his universe align just a little bit more.

 

When Steve was 18 and he was sitting next to his mother’s death bed, he had felt his entire world had shifted from its orbit. He knew things would never be the same again, because his mother was his rock, his constant, and she was gone. But then Bucky placed a hand on his tiny shoulder and gave it a squeeze, and just like that Steve knew that he had Bucky, too, till the end of the line.

 

As Steve pulled Bucky into his arms, felt him alive and solid, for the first time in a long time, he was okay.

 

A warm chuckle arose from deep inside him as he saw the people around his reunite with their loved ones. Shuri was held tight in T’Challa’s arms, and Steve felt a rush of affection for the strong Princess who gave up at nothing to get her brother back. The racoon, Rocket, was running towards a tree. Across the field, Steve’s eyes met with Thor’s. Thor gave a nod as he thrust himself up, and Steve hopes he finds the person he is looking for, too.

 

Then Steve saw Tony, running around frantically, and Steve felt his heart break.

 

His kid didn’t come back.

 

“I’ll be right over, Buck,” he said. Letting go of Bucky after everything that just happened was hard, but watching Tony crumble in front of him- that was harder. He’d done it once, he would not do it again.

 

“Mr Stark?” he heard a voice say, innocent and familiar, and Steve could see the relief flood into Tony’s brown orbs from a mile away.

 

“Kid,” he heard Tony say, so soft that even his super hearing could barely catch it.

 

Tony’s knees gave way, and he crumbled to the ground with his arms out as a kid ran into it, only his brown curls visible as he buried his head deep into Tony’s shoulder. Tony tightened his arms around the kid, shaking as he repeated “you’re okay, Pete. You’re okay” like a mantra, whether to himself or to Peter Steve did not know. Perhaps both, Steve mused.

 

“I love you, kid,” he heard Tony sob as he approached the duo. “I’m sorry I never told you. I love you.”

 

“I love you too, Dad” he heard Peter say.

 

Steve smiled and turned in the direction of Sam, standing a little to his right.

 

Tony needed time with his son, after all.

 

 

**_+1_ **

****

“So,” Tony’s voice came over the coms, “Shawarma anyone?”

 

Steve laughed, his mind wandering to a battle a few years back, which wrecked so many things but gave Steve Rogers- a man who left his sense of belonging in the ice 70 years prior- a family.

 

He supposed this battle isn’t much different.

 

And that is how the Avengers, along with Strange and King T’Challa and Shuri and the Guardians and Bucky, all found themselves on the quinjet heading towards New York. They all sat on a large table, laughing in a way they hadn’t since Berlin, Sam on his right and Bucky on his left. Tony sat across him, his arms around Peter, who leaned into Tony’s side. Steve thought he should be surprised by how well they just _fit,_ but he wasn’t, not really.

 

Steve didn’t need to be a Tony Stark level of genius to figure out that Peter, this kid from Queens who apparently fights crime (Spiderman suit was a he giveaway) was the person everyone had been looking for for years, the piece of a jigsaw that proved that Tony Stark has a heart.

 

“So, Spiderman,” Steve said, “I believe we haven’t officially met. I’m Steve Rogers.”

 

Peter gave Tony a panicked look, to which Tony just chuckled.

 

“You’re wearing the suit, kid.”

 

“Oh right,” Peter laughed, “I didn’t even notice.”

 

“Captain Rogers, sir, I’m Peter Parker. Big fan, sir. Sorry about the shield, I hope there are no hard feelings? I didn’t mean to hurt you, sir, I swear I just-“

 

“It’s okay son,” Steve said softly. “You are a good fighter. I would love to help you, if you want.”

 

“Really? I, I would love to, sir.”

 

Afterwards, Steve stood at the doorway of Peter’s room as Tony tucked his sleeping form into bed, his hand lingering over his face as he brushed Peter’s brown curls softly from his face. He dropped a light kiss on Peter’s forehead, with care and softness that Steve would not have ever expected from Tony two years ago.

 

“Fatherhood suits you, Tony,” Steve said, as Tony left the room.

 

As Tony smiled at him, Steve knew they would be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> So this wasn't supposed to be 3000 words of 'I love Steve Rogers' but that's what it turned out to be.  
> I regret nothing. 
> 
> If you want, follow my Tumblr to see me cry about how Tony Stark and Peter Parker's father-son duo owns my heart. 
> 
> my Tumblr: starsinourinfinities


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